There are some coaches / schools that I notice do not take their conference championship seriously and just simply tank it. Purposely put kids in a position of failure. Disrespect the conference and the sport in my opinion. How do the AD's allow this to go on? These are teams that should win their conference but finish much lower. Teams that cruise through District and have had success and failure at the Regional and have done ok at the State meet, but nothing earth shattering. Why would you not run your varsity and lose your conference meet and put JV runners in a position to fail? How do you convince parents and runners that being the best in your conference does not matter? How do you convince the administration that a conference title does not matter? Not one year. but multiple years? Don't you think the first year you do not win the state meet or finish below your ranking would be the end of it? Losers mentality! At what point do we call it a successful strategy? Is it when they win a state title once in 5 tries? 8 tries? 10?

As a parent, I would have some meetings and my kid would be running. I think it's as much unfair to the kids that get thrown out there as it is to the kids that are not .

I agree conference championships should matter. Most schools have banners hanging in their gym that list conference champs for each sport. Know why....because it is important to win those. The AD should step in.

I agree. We tell the kids that the conference meet and the state meet are the two that we want to win the most. I can see "cruising" through a district meet, at least more so than a conference meet, as the post-season can be a bit grueling. Having said that, however, I think kids like to race and in most circumstances I don't think it's a good strategy.

When I say cruise, I meant that they qualified through to the Regional rather easily. Although, I've seen one school that does not try to win their conference, blow it at the District a time or two for various reasons.

What if the Conference Meet really doesn't mean to much to a school. Look at the AAC. They had to run their conference meet at the Sim Earich meet today. They have 3 tiers in both boys and girls. Not 1 girl in the 3 tiers won their race today but are conference champion, on the boys side 2 of the 3 tier champions won. So lets say you are talking about a certain school from NEO who wears orange and black. They year after year sit their varsity at conference. Last year the girls won their district, 2nd at regional, and 4th at state, not bad. Now I tend to agree with you, I too am old school, sitting kids should be unheard of. But it works for them, i guess. Would they do that well if they ran the week before? We may never know as they will continue to rest kids. College strategy has changed the way we race our kids. It would interesting to see how many schools push close to the 16 meet limit(That is 2 meets a week, every week!).

... but in other sports there are JV and freshmen competitions every week or even multiple times per week. Most XC teams have a total of 7 invitationals and a conference meet. Reducing a sports season to 7 competitions for young athletes is not a good idea and needs to be fought.

If those ADs are successful in eliminating junior varsity races, then someone in that league needs to step up and create a JV meet held about the same time that isn't sponsored by the league.

I wonder if Lancaster does this. I have noticed over the years that they have not done well at leagues, been very good at districts the next week--and then struggled at the regional meet. Perhaps building too much for districts?

I thought the pick north boys did a great job (I know, Õīm biased...) of peaking for the league meet this year. I think that will propel them going forward.

Since I really only follow our division of our league, my only other observation is that the Gahanna girls made a statement about their depth on a tough course and in hot conditions. I think they are better than most realize.

I don't really think I believe they have underperformed at the OCC meet. Lancaster does well at the district meet because their coach generally makes good choices about which district to enter. (This is very far from universally true.) As for struggling at the regional, I would argue that the parity in the central has lead to a lot of years where a bunch of teams went to Pickerington knowing that they had to run at their best in order to qualify for the state meet. That tends to produce up and down regional results.

There are some coaches / schools that I notice do not take their conference championship seriously and just simply tank it. Purposely put kids in a position of failure. Disrespect the conference and the sport in my opinion. How do the AD's allow this to go on? These are teams that should win their conference but finish much lower. Teams that cruise through District and have had success and failure at the Regional and have done ok at the State meet, but nothing earth shattering. Why would you not run your varsity and lose your conference meet and put JV runners in a position to fail? How do you convince parents and runners that being the best in your conference does not matter? How do you convince the administration that a conference title does not matter? Not one year. but multiple years? Don't you think the first year you do not win the state meet or finish below your ranking would be the end of it? Losers mentality! At what point do we call it a successful strategy? Is it when they win a state title once in 5 tries? 8 tries? 10?

As a parent, I would have some meetings and my kid would be running. I think it's as much unfair to the kids that get thrown out there as it is to the kids that are not .

Quote:

Originally Posted by psycho_dad

Although, I've seen one school that does not try to win their conference, blow it at the District a time or two for various reasons.

I've seen schools try to win conference, blow it at the District. Is it fair to say the Regional and State meet are both more important than conference?

How? How does running at the league meet adversely affect performance at the District? Unless you break something, but that happen running easy at practice.

My son put it very simply and as good as I could ever hope to put it. "If a coach doesn't try to win, why are they a coach?"

Just been proven too many times that teams can run their best runners at conference and still move through the District, Regional and do well at State. Proven too many times that you can run your top runners every week and still win the state meet.

Where is all the evidence that resting the top runners produces state champs?

Districts/Regionals/States should be more important than conference meets. But it is not supported by the statistics that tanking the league meet improves a teams performance in the postseason. The only connection I can see is if a team peaks at the league meet, which is what I'm concerned for my folks as a matter of fact. But if a team is set up to peak at the conference, I dont think tanking or not tanking will really make a difference. Peaking comes from when/how a team decides to taper. By conference day, the deed is done.

Districts/Regionals/States should be more important than conference meets.

Define important. We think, and tell the kids, that in terms of winning a meet the conference meet comes second only to the state meet. I'd rather win the conference and only get second or third at the district or regional (as long as that counts for qualifying to the next round)than I would losing the conference to necessarily win either of those two meets. All qualifying teams to the next round start on the starting line of that next meet regardless of the position they finished in. That doesn't mean we don't usually try to win those meets if we think it's within our grasp, but our main goal is qualification.

Your team needs to make progress in the conference before looking ahead to District, Regional and State. And, the way that the District meets are set up, making it through to the Regional may not be all that difficult. I think it would have been a much more successful season for Coventry if they had beaten Field and given Cloverleaf a run for their money. Build for next year and then start thinking of honestly challenging for that second spot in the league and then look to take out Goliath. Your girls need to have 5 bother to show up for the race. Make the progression before thinking about Regional and State. You build a strong culture and tradition and I would hope that winning or placing as high in the conference as you can would be goal #1. Winning the Conference at Woodridge is goal #1. Qualifying through from District to Regional #2, Regional to State #3. Doing as well at the state meet as possible is #4. One step in front of the other.

Coventry needs to start at the MS level. Just make it a fun thing. It should be easy to get kids out. It's just a numbers game. It's not about training, it's about learning and creating interest. The kids at Woodridge just love how fun practice is and meets as well.

It seems to me that when a team does not put an effort in to do well at their conference meet, it's more about the coach than the kids at that point.

I'd have to disagree. I'd rather win a state title than a regional title. A regional title than a district title. And a district title over a conference title. I think you should look big picture. If you're working toward building a regional/state caliber team, the conference titles should take care of themselves. While I do agree that teams should be giving an honest effort at their conference meet, I just don't think that comes at the expense of the rest of the post season. I don't know about all the conferences, but I know the OCC's are down to 6-7 teams per (one only had 5 scored teams...). And typically you'll be lucky to see half of them be competitive in each group. So teams come in (with the exception of maybe a couple out of the 10 races) knowing who's going to win. Even if the next best team has a perfect day. So why kill yourself out there? That may be some of the "tanking" you see. I doubt any teams that have a shot to compete and potentially win are just laying down.

I wonder if Lancaster does this. I have noticed over the years that they have not done well at leagues, been very good at districts the next week--and then struggled at the regional meet. Perhaps building too much for districts?

My first thought was to ignore this, but perhaps silence signals agreement... so, for the record,

The Gales gave their best effort in the Ohio Division Championship, as they have in every previous league championship race since I have been the coach.

Congratulations to Pick North on a fine race! You should be especially proud of your 4 and 5 runners; their work in the 2nd and 3rd mile determined the outcome. Congratulations to Coach Starkey on his great work developing these guys and the entire team. Best wishes for the rest of the season.

If winning a Conference Championship isn't that important then just play a club sport.... It's an honor and privilege to get to play high school sports not a right so why not be the best in your Conference?

My first thought was to ignore this, but perhaps silence signals agreement... so, for the record,

The Gales gave their best effort in the Ohio Division Championship, as they have in every previous league championship race since I have been the coach.

Congratulations to Pick North on a fine race! You should be especially proud of your 4 and 5 runners; their work in the 2nd and 3rd mile determined the outcome. Congratulations to Coach Starkey on his great work developing these guys and the entire team. Best wishes for the rest of the season.

Not sure anyone can argue what is best for another program. I would hope that most do what is right for thier program. In my case it depends on the year. Never have "tanked" the league championship meet, but the importance depends on the team goals for the year, and that depends on the strength of the league and the team... and on the health of the team.... and maybe even the mentality of the team/coach.

Example: This year we had no chance to win the league.... top 7 running PR's and top team running poor would have gotten us 3rd. Plus it was homecoming weekend and for HS girls, their priorities are elsewhere. We got 4th by Not putting emphasis on the race. "Just Have a good time" and cover the course.
We got 4th and had 3 of 19 girls run their best race of the year (not best times). 15 of the 19 road home with their parents and did not even stay for the awards/results. That was OK with me as this week is more important because we can advance to the Regional for the 8th year in a row. So THIS YEAR the District is more important.
NEXT YEAR that could all change

In short... Can't the philosophy change as the team/talent/compitition change?